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Focusing on 200m was a mistake – Bloomfield

Published:Tuesday | October 8, 2019 | 12:00 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
Akeem Bloomfield (left) competing in the men’s 400m heats at the IAAF World Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, October 2. At right is Trinidad and Tobago’s Machel Cedenio, who won the heat ahead of Bloomfield.
Gladstone Taylor
Akeem Bloomfield (left) competing in the men’s 400m heats at the IAAF World Championships at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday, October 2. At right is Trinidad and Tobago’s Machel Cedenio, who won the heat ahead of Bloomfield.

Doha,Qatar:

Akeem Bloomfield has admitted that the decision he and his coach, Henry Rolle, made to concentrate on the 200m earlier this season was a mistake and has said that he will be focusing on the 400m next season.

The former Kingston College athlete opted to run the 200m instead of the 400m at the Jamaica Senior Championships back in June, but he did not secure one of the top three spots in the event and was given a place to run the quarter-mile event after Terry Thomas and Javon Francis did not make the qualifying mark to compete here.

“I started with the 200m, and so the endurance side of racing took a really long time to develop, and I got hurt a lot before switching back to the 400m,” Bloomfield said after finishing eighth in the men’s 400m final here at the IAAF World Championships. “I think for the majority of next season, me and my coach will be sticking to the 400m.”

Bloomfield, who predominantly runs the 400m, became one of the few men in history to have gone under 44 seconds and 20 seconds in the 400 and 200m, respectively, last season.

His 19.81 seconds at the London Anniversary Games last year may have prompted the decision to concentrate on the 200m.

“I have no excuses,” he said. “It just didn’t work out for me this year. My body has been feeling a bit tired. I was happy to be in the final, and valuable experience can be taken from it,” he said about how he performed in the 400m final on Friday.